National Library of Australia

Provided by The Australian Dictionary of Biography

MELBA, Dame NELLIE (1861-1931), prima donna, was born Helen Porter Mitchell on 19 May 1861 at Richmond, Melbourne, eldest surviving of ten children of David Mitchell, building contractor, and his wife Isabella Ann, née Dow. Her father's business acumen and strict code of behaviour strongly influenced Melba, who later declared that of all the men she had known he had meant most to her. Her mother shared her husband's taste for music and proficiently played a number of instruments including the family harmonium; she was the girl's first music teacher. Nellie was not, however, an infant prodigy. Although she first sang in public when 6, forming a lifelong attachment to 'Comin' thro' the Rye', it was her humming that visitors noticed. Unwittingly she had hit upon what she would later describe as an effective vocal exercise. She also whistled, and generally behaved like a tomboy.

Author: Jim Davidson

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Showing 1 - 20 of 133 Results for author:"Melba, Nellie, Dame, 1861-1931"
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by Melba, Nellie, Dame, 1861-1931
Freeport, N.Y. : Books for Libraries Press, [1970]
 
 
by Melba, Nellie, Dame, 1861-1931
London ; Sydney : New York : Chappell & Co. ; Harms, 1926
 
 
by Melba, Nellie, Dame, 1861-1931
London ; Sydney : New York : Chappell & Co. ; Harms, 1926
 
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